a story among many

Majeda Al Saqqa, January 10th
Majeda Al Saqqa, 2009-01-10

Virtual Gaza

Logic is my key for today.
I want to apologize to all the musicians in the world for calling the sounds of bombing an orchestra.
After a horrific night of tank shelling, bombardment by F16s, maybe an Apache too, the drone and, most scary of all, the smell of phosphorus gas reaching the edge of our neighborhood, today, I want to apologize to all musicians.
No, war sounds are far more frightening and ugly.
Today I will not joke.
I will think logic and talk logic.
Not enough food at home.
Children frustrated, wanting out of this prison.
It's not going to end today.
It might last for much longer.
Demands are increasing at all levels and from every side.
So, best is to act.
No safe place in Gaza Strip.
If my own bed is not safe,
then the market is not safe.
But it might be safer than, or at least as safe as my bed could be....
So, I'm up early.
I call the children: "Come we'll all go to the vegetable market."
"Is the war over?" screams Arslan, my 5-year-old nephew happily.
"No, but there will be a ceasefire, a 'safe corridor' from 1 to 3 pm," I tell him.
"Is it 1 pm?" Arslan asks.
"What's a ceasefire?" Wael asks my sister Najat, at the same time.
"Is a safe corridor like the one we use next to our bathroom?"
Najat is exhausted. She hasn't slept for two nights now. She looks at Wael and breaks
out in laughter: "Similar.... it's the shit in the pot!"
I answer Arslan: "It's 8 am now. We'll go now."
For me it seems safer to get out before the ceasefire because it doesn’t seem that there
really is one, or at least that it's observed....
I catch Arslan's eye: "Looks like there's movement in the streets, so we'll try to go
now."
I haven't seen the children so happy. They don't wait for me to get the car out from the garage. Like birds escaping the cage, they all start singing and dancing on the door step of our house.

A woman in the street asks me if I can give her a lift.
"I came here because they are distributing vegetables to poor people," she tells me.
"I'm not at an UNRWA school, I'm with my sister's family. Nobody knows about us.
"We're not registered, we're not refuges, so no one wants to help us. This kind man living in your neighborhood asked me for my ID. I gave it to him yesterday. Today I came and he gave me some vegetables. I have no idea what we will do with them -- we have no wood, no gas and no electricity. We haven't even had water for the last four days."
I looked at her in the rearview mirror and say: "Sell it and buy canned food."
"Who will buy it?"
"Many people will," I assure her.
"Will you take me to the vegetable market?" she asks.
"I'm going there, I'll take you."
She looks out the car window and says to herself: "It's better like this, I'll sell it and
buy milk for the kids and some kerosene."
The market
I decide that I will only look in the mirror or straight in front of me.
I don't want to see anything around me.
I love Khan Younis.
I can't do anything for Khan Younis today but wait patiently and survive, so tomorrow we all can do something.
Halfway to the market, we're the only car in the street.
Wael is laughing and telling Arslan to look at the old man we've just passed.
"He's hiding behind the door and looking.
"But I saw him.
"Look at that woman too! I saw her!
"She's hiding behind the door, peeking out..."
Arslan is looking out on the other side of the road. He screams: "Hey look, our kindergarten! They destroyed the building near our garden!"
Majed, my 6-year-old nephew, asks me "Who did this?"
I answer, "The airplane."
"I know, but who is in the airplane?"
I look at the woman and say: "You can sell your vegetables here."
Majed repeats his question
"Who did this destruction?"
I look at him and say: "The Israelis. But don't ask me who they are now because if you look just in front of you, you'll see where we'll buy our stuff."
There was huge truck distributing flour to people.
We sat and waited until some families got their quota and then they sat in the sun and started selling half of what they'd received.
An old woman was sitting covering her face.
I went to her and asked if I could buy from her.
"Yes, please, I have to get back quickly. If my sons know I am here, they'll be upset with me. I came because we have nothing left at home. And we have twelve children at home who need to eat three times a day."
I asked her why she is selling the flour in this case.
"Because we got two bags from UNRWA, we'll use one and with the money of the other one we'll buy vegetables."
"Ok, then how much is this?"
"NIS180."
"Why? It was 90, I say.
"Everyone in the market is selling at this price."
"Ok then, I will take it."
Some young men come and help me put it in the trunk.
When I switch the car on, Dima asks: "Why did you buy that sack of flour? It's got 'Not for Sale' written on it"
I look at her jokingly: "I bought it, I will not sell it, because it is not for sale."
What else do we need, Dima?"
She looks at the small paper where my mother has listed all her needs.
"We still need everything, you only bought one thing."
"Sugar, my grandmother said: 'don't forget sugar,'" Arslan offers.
We look everywhere but find nothing but vegetables.
So we buy what we like. And then what we don't like, just in case.
And we drive back, with my eyes staring only straight ahead.
I hear Wael, Arslan, Dima and Majed playing their new game "I see something different."
I'm not ready to look.
Shelling starts in Khan Younis.
Strikes somewhere not far, but far.
I drive quickly, passing down the main market road – a road I've not been able to drive down for the past 20 years because it's always so packed full of people and
stands.
Today I can drive as fast as I want.
It's totally empty.
Back home
We reach home and everyone's happy.
Finally, we've managed to get flour, which is most important.
Wael enters the house and announces to my mother:
We brought you flour.
But no sugar.
The toy shop is closed.
The supermarket is closed.
The woman who sells the flour doesn't have any chocolate.
She doesn’t sell cars or airplanes.
She is covering her face.
She didn't want us to know her.
The phone rings.
Wael runs to answer.
"Hello. Who is it?"
He's silent for a moment, then: "No, we don't have any..."
A few more seconds of silence.
"But we need sugar.
"And I want a car and an airplane with a remote control."
I run to pick up the second phone. This boy is out of control. He has to stop asking my friends to buy him things every time they call:
"Hello?..."
It's a recorded message from the Israeli military.
The message repeats:
"If you have guns at home you should get rid of them.
"If you are hiding any of the militias, report them at the following number...
"If you have information you want to share, call the following number…"
I look at Wael. He looks back at me, his eyes are asking my permission to request the caller to buy chocolate for his brothers too. I give him the Ok.
So he adds: "Bring some for Majed and Arslan and Dima too."
Precisely at 1pm, the cease fire starts.
I was right in my calculation and logic.
The military planes are back in the sky, performing their daily shock and awe show, complete with the sound and motion. But today they've added flying balloons and they're drawing lines across the sky with the smoke of the airplanes.
The chorus of kids crying their hearts out starts up across the neighborhood again.
I secretly congratulate myself -- going to the market before the ceasefire was a wise choice. But now it's time to go comfort and hug the kid.

TAKE ACTION: ISRAEL IS KILLING PALESTINIANS W/ US WEAPONS

Resolution 1850, Absence of a Legal Voice and The US Policy

Resolution
The full text of resolution 1850 (2008) reads as follows:

“The Security Council,

“Recalling all its previous relevant resolutions, in particular resolutions 242, 338, 1397, and 1515 and the Madrid principles,

“Reiterating its vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,

“Welcoming the 9 November 2008 statement from the Quartet and the Israeli‑Palestinian Joint Understanding announced at the November 2007 Annapolis Conference, including in relation to implementation of the Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,

“Noting also that lasting peace can only be based on an enduring commitment to mutual recognition, freedom from violence, incitement, and terror, and the two-State solution, building upon previous agreements and obligations,

“Noting the importance of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative,

“Encouraging the Quartet’s ongoing work to support the parties in their efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,

“1. Declares its support for the negotiations initiated at Annapolis, Maryland, on 27 November 2007 and its commitment to the irreversibility of the bilateral negotiations;

“2. Supports the parties’ agreed principles for the bilateral negotiating process and their determined efforts to reach their goal of concluding a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues, without exception, which confirm the seriousness of the Annapolis process;

“3. Calls on both parties to fulfil their obligations under the Performance-Based Roadmap, as stated in their Annapolis Joint Understanding, and refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of negotiations;

“4. Calls on all States and international organizations to contribute to an atmosphere conducive to negotiations and to support the Palestinian government that is committed to the Quartet principles and the Arab Peace Initiative and respects the commitments of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, to assist in the development of the Palestinian economy, to maximize the resources available to the Palestinian Authority, and to contribute to the Palestinian institution‑building programme in preparation for statehood;

“5. Urges an intensification of diplomatic efforts to foster in parallel with progress in the bilateral process mutual recognition and peaceful coexistence between all States in the region in the context of achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;

“6. Welcomesthe Quartet’s consideration, in consultation with the parties, of an international meeting in Moscow in 2009;

“7. Decides to remain seized of the matter.”

I think Hamas got framed by the UN's seal on this resolution, a seal that the whole world irreversibly agreed to, to carry on with a clearly a too vague post Annapolis negotiations that puts Palestinians out balance against Israel, trashing 2006 elections, raising international aid donations and pushing the subject matter off to 2009, loosely allowing more settlers colonization without any penalties set by a third party or the international community..

What is Ironic is that the whole, mostly our world is silent. we - the first hand concerned people - we, the same people are never there in the legal arena. look at us, we are legally illiterate, legally voiceless when its us who supposed to be talking and I blame media, academia, and common home education ... the International Intervention never was in favor of Palestine and Palestinians and the massive support for a two state solution became so strong when physically it stood impossible to work for a Palestinian autonomous state in 14% of Palestine that looks like Swiss cheese! bad news is that is two states solution is not around the corner neither. what can people do in this case?


Freedom for Palestine 6 by ~Johny-60 on deviantART

Answer: support civic peace movements & educate people and earn a voice. a Legal voice.

Thanks to Post Zionist thinkers, there are people advocating a Palestinian State and are seeking a redefinition for a state of Israel.

But if established a state of Palestine over the 1967 Territories, do you think the relation between Palestine - Israel as a state would ever be similar to Jordan - Israel? ever ? can you take a look at an anticipated state ? How will the legal system be like? how will the resources interdependency be like?

what if the united states no longer supported Israel?
the states' vote is either against or abstention..

but again, what if..



Enjoy!

Gaza on DeviantArt 1

gaza by ~bodi002 on deviantART


Gaza,Oops They Did Again by =No-More-Ignorance on deviantART


Gaza by ~davidbdr on deviantART


Gaza Strip Under Siege by ~BenHeine on deviantART


Israeli Blockade of Gaza by ~Latuff2 on deviantART

Things I can do

1- turn fact sheets to videos and post them on Youtube and Ikbis in a dedicated channel
2- link those videos to Queen Rania Youtube Channel
3- Network with people around the world who worked on Middle Eastern Studies and include their views and support and findings
4- Draw thoughts
5- Inspire local singers to make music that is enjoyable and hearing friendly, art work and sculptures
6- Find strength in suffering and capture photos of success and hope
7- make wikis and develop answers in appropriate and documented content and propose it to places it can get adopted
8- Celebrate every success no matter how small

will be back

a Bushless Change puting the country first, leaving the wars behind?

little I know about the needs of an American citizen, but surly it is great to see how people are voting, the excitement, the coverage and campaigning.

Americans will pick Change, there is a world wide exhaustion and its calling

please stop the wars Mr New President and be fair, care for people and not the economy.

Mr Bush, we are gonna miss you on TV

Go Obama!

Poverty on papers and Jordan

There are many ways to measure poverty, there is whats called Measure I and Measure II ; Measure I examins how inequality and vulnerability can be used to measure poverty. Measuring Poverty II talks about two common indices used to measure poverty, UN Human Development Index (HDI) and the Human Poverty Index (HPI)

The HDI for Jordan is 0.773, which gives the country a rank of 86^th out of 177 countries for 2005 data reported in 2007/2008 report.

Countries on the same level of HDI as Jordan can have very different levels of income. Of the components of the HDI, only income and gross enrolment are somewhat responsive to short term policy changes. For that reason, it is important to examine changes in the human development index over time. but I don't know about now, like so much happened on the political and economic realm since 2005 in Jordan.

The HDI measures the average progress of a country in human development. The Human Poverty Index for developing countries (HPI-1), focuses on the proportion of people below a threshold level in the same dimensions of human development as the human development index - living a long and healthy life, having access to education, and a decent standard of living. By looking beyond income deprivation, the HPI-1 represents a multi-dimensional alternative to the $1 a day poverty measure.

The HPI-1 value of 6.9 for Jordan, ranks 11^th among 108 developing countries for which the index has been calculated.

The HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate. And a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people without access to an improved water source and the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight for their age. [source]

still I don't think this measure is practical enough, its a great indicator but it doesn't advice anything about improving measures, because its responsive to policies but doesn't tell how to fix it. rankings are ok, but there is a lot of room for improvements especially in camps and rural cities. and the truth is, we didnt see the data past 2007, so reality now is different.

http://blogactionday.org/js/b12a95cbc4a0decdba903d1041446d37a6275cf9

Poverty : Broad Strokes

while preparing to write about Poverty, I discovered that I didn't know how to answer basic questions relating to it and that its a complex issue hiding behind a word, its not a simple problem to say the least, and while surfing the web for an understanding to poverty relating to where we are, I came with this structure with simplified answers to follow:

how to define poverty?
Who is considered poor?
How to statistically measure poverty?
where are the poor in Jordan? how about the rest of the world?
What needs to be done?
can we translate that to action?

see people, what I was looking for is: if I want to develop a content that can be given to others that says " this content will help fight poverty " what would it be?? I don't see quite well, I don't have answers but this is what I hope we would get to all together, lets think, many heads are definitely better than one

to be continued..


Poverty [ blended notes from several places to reflect upon]
***********

How to define poverty?

is it not having the cost to get by?

"Poverty is really the lack of freedom to have or to do basic things that you value" Amartya Sen

"Rather than a single poverty measure, what you really want is to develop multiple measures of deprivation and look at them on a regular basis" Rebecca Blank

you neutralize poverty "by keeping the focus on the characteristics of poor people rather than on the economy, politics and society are more broadly constructed" Alice O'conner

what are the characteristics of the poor in Jordan?? illiteracy? unemployment?

what is the statistical measure?? US--> The present system is based on a minimally nutritious food budget devised decades ago by the Department of Agriculture. The food budget is multiplied by three because back in the 1950's and 60's food was considered one-third of an average family's outlays. define the poverty line?

who is responsible for poverty — government, society or the individual?

How to measure poverty? Who are The poor?

one way is to use income as the single criterion for judging who is poor.

should the family of a hardworking full-time employee earning the minimum wage be blamed for poverty because the minimum no longer lifts the worker's income above the poverty level? should we look into neighborhoods?


http://blogactionday.org/js/b12a95cbc4a0decdba903d1041446d37a6275cf9

The Classrooms

So far we have said that we have big student numbers in the classes, students mostly don't know what they signed up for after Tawjihi, There is a significant number of bad teachers in this University and now I want to address the Classrooms

مدرج 2 - اعمال / مقابله حمام يستحق الزيارة

In university requirement classes like General Safety Principles, Ecology, and other courses where a class has at least 150+ students from different faculties, teachers use big old projectors and transparency paper slides of the actual book pages or exact passages, -yup they still use those, fine if you wanna use it for a graph but text, I don't think so- the teacher goes over the content in a one man show, reading off , alone! there is no use of attending these classes, the exam is a multiple choice that you know you would pass if you read the book, a total waste of energy and most of these classes are too boring, a bigger class requires a variety of methods to keep students focused, believe me I tried to stay focused on what he is saying in military science, in horticulture, but I couldn't. I lose the lecturer at least twice during the class and I am quite a good listener, the Arabic 101 , 102 books and instructors are terrible. Check the books for yourself. we don't take "أدب عربي و تعبير فكري عربي" we take " بصم عربي و كيفية النفاق بالعربي "

In other classes towards the humanitarian faculties some Drs do some underlining in the class while reading to students, students attend these classes because attendance is mandatory and most of the time you have to stick to the seat number, the only question a student would ask is " is this chapter included in the exam? "

Speaking of questions, shouldn't a class provoke questions? 80% of the classes rarely raise questions from students, most of the time, Drs don't like to be interrupted and some of those Drs give you an impression that you are stupid to ask such a question or " inta mish mtabbe3 3ashan heik ma fhimet aw shiklak mish fa6er ". bil 3arabi bisharshe7u bi karamtak il ard iza 7akait mish fahem.. few and really really few Drs welcome a student saying I didn't understand what you just said in class.

لقد تعلمنا ان لا نسأل

We didn't learn the philosophy of science, we didn't dedicate classes for the scientific method, how to reason, what is critical thinking, all this got embedded in the definition of a major and the procedures they teach but truly students don't know what it means. we didn't learn how concepts are formulated, we don't learn PHILOSOPHY. contemplate this action's consequences. its a personal request.


There are Drs who teach wrong information, students correct their math on board and teachers give non convincing answers or bullshit their way out of it making it mission impossible to understand, literally, leaving behind holes in the students' brain, Drs won't think outside their notes that they want to fill up the board with, students end up signing with such a Dr because he has easy grades or mi7taker il maddeh.

Good students are the ones who learned to study alone.Through self-study and reading beyond course requirements in the text book

Drs who do power point presentations / use computer applications have to stick to the rooms that have "a data show" so its either the computer lab, the room with a key, or they would ask the secretary to give them the department data show and guess what,, these doctors use the whole fifty minutes reading off the presentation while the lights are off which is a nap atmosphere, in this kind of classes where the lecture is the presentation, students don't even read the book, we were not given any background reading to do, NEVER, I don't remember being asked for assigned reading, I was not asked about looking up a subject for discussion, very few did discussions and was in 5th year classes, they gave us weekly quizes and homework problem sets, some were very demanding but for the sake of it, few Drs did care that we understand, they spent the time showing us how problems are solved numerically, and asking us to do the same, a series of direct instructions, stick to the notes and the power point presentation, the past papers and you will pass, whatever report we did, there was a perfect answer that needs to be written.

The least attention is given to the Laboratories and conducting experiments, sometimes we were able to finish the lab in 30 minutes out of three hours, there was always past reports to look at and fill the tables, students don't pay attention since its a credit hour, but it is where we really apply what we are learning and I can't really put it in words, its bad. go see for yourself. the labs are old and very badly equipped, especially mechanical engineering labs, automation, control, thermal fluids.

Teachers in JU don't know how to be class facilitators, they don't bother reading the room, knowing the students on a personal level, don't know that a human brain disconnects after 50 minutes in 1 hour 30 minutes class, they don't know that they should give breaks, that they should include activities in class, that he needs to set expectations for the class and agree with the students on some ground rules, he should use variety of tools, flow charts, colors, videos, ppts, reading assignments, problem sets, and web pages and discussions. he should watch his tone of voice that it won't remain monotonous through the lecture, he should know that that who scribbles in class is not totally absent minded and most of all...

لا تستعملوا اسلوب التخويف

There is a truth, we are very much behind when it comes to teachers and technology. I can think of 3 Drs in the electrical engineering department who have a webpage, the rest don't. I swear a Dr in the Mechanical Engineering Department asked us to write him an e-mail so he would send us the presentations back instead of uploading it to a website, he replied back to fifty something student, I SWEAR.. The Computer Engineering Dept staff Webpages are still of Web 1.0 form. its still a one way communication, log on and check the announcements and download files, that's it, there are no online discussions, there are Drs who don't reply e-mails, and there are Drs who can't be found in their offices quite often, so you can say communication is not impossible but it does very sincerely SUCK!! not to mention if you are a girl, some Drs exhibit a sense of discomfort dealing with a female student, and this is so evident, they won't look you in the eye, and you have to be super polite when talking to them. the female voice is so silent, so non existent, girls sitting next to each other, in one row, questioning too little, having the group distribution automatically labeled as " the girls group " they always said girls commit to studying better, master the homeworks, but the guys are the better engineers! you wanna know why, because they go easy on girls when its a practical assignment! girls get a preferential treatment in classes. It makes others politer but reserves incompetency attitude towards females. guys always joke about female incompetency in my faculty, it was never not there.

As for the competency test, you can find the result file for Fall 07/08 here, it includes the Gender, Nationality, University, ID number, Tawjihi Grade, GPA, Exam Score and Rank. I omitted the names column.

how did the results turn this way,, its another story =)

Support Worthy Student Activities - IEEE Jordan University Student Branch

Students / Professors Must Check - Wesch Classroom





why don't the branch students make a training session for the Drs on web 2.0 applications that can be used in the classroom ?? courses would give a drive for the classmates to work collectively and learn and lets say make wikis of knowledge by the end of the term that is a product of what you have done with the Dr .. WHAT YOU THINK?

written by students in JU

In order to read, please click to enlarge picture.

The University of Jordan: The Voices

I went to The university of Jordan today, with a camera, a laptop and papers. I wanted to finish my writing on the University classrooms, but eventually I started asking students randomly:

لو التلك انو انت جزء من ادارة هاي الجامعة و انت طلعلك تغير اشياء فيها... شو بتغير؟ شو الاشياء اللي بتدايأك هون و شو بتغير فيها لحتى تكون تجربتك بالجامعة احسن من وجهة نظرك؟ احكي بالطريقة اللي يتريحك

whenever they started talking, I asked them to write their thoughts on a piece of paper, and I asked them to write their initials and the faculty they study in. in the beggining I used to ask if they mind having their picture taken while holding the paper, no one really agreed to that because :/ I don't know.. you tell me??

I didn't want to put these answers in a post reflecting my point of view and what I made of them, but I related with everything they said, and I will give my input in the coming post.

I wanted you to read these writings in their raw form, I asked them to write in their own words whether 3ammieh, Arabic, English, everyone decided to write in Arabic..

اتمنى، يا ريت لو، ماذا لو .... و هيك حكوا

بسمح للطلاب يحضروا حصص زيادة ازى كانوا مهتمين و بسمحلهم يستعملوا الالات الموسيقية

Y.H كلية الفنون دفعة 2007

وجود عدد اكبر من المساعدين للطلبة او تعليم المساعدة للاشخاص المسؤؤلين عن ذلك

D.B Business School

smile always انا ما دخلني كطالبة شو الاوضاع الي بمر فيها الموظف ، its not professional..

D.B Business School

اتمنى لو كان هناك مجلس طلبة حقيقي يمثل الطلبة و يكون هناك انشطة تزيد من الوعي المجتمعي و ليس مجلس طلبة يقوم على المعارف و العائلة

A.M Med School

التخلص من قضية العشائرية

M.K Med School 2005

التخلص من الاحزاب السياسية، وجود مواطنين غير اردنيين في هذه الجامعة عندما يقومون بمظاهرات داخل الجامعة يقومون بسب و شتم عشائر البلد و شتم الحكومة و نحن كطلاب اردنيين لا نطيق هذه الاحزاب مع ايماننا بوجود احزاب و لكن ليس يهذه الطريقة

A.H الانسانية

لو كان هناك نظام علامات اكثر عدالة و غير نظام الحروف

ِِA.M Med School

الاردنية اول جامعة و قعت على جهاز لابتوب لكل طالب و الى الان لم يستلم اي طالب مقارنة بالجامعات الاخرى مثل الهاشمية اللي باشرت بتوزيع الاجهزة

N.K كلية الاداب

ماذا لو تغير بعض الاساذة المحترمين و ابدلوهم باساتذة يمتلكون القدرة الكافية في التعامل و التواصل مع الطلبة ادبيا و فكريا قبل ان يكون علميا

ماذا لو امتلك بعض الطلبة الجرأة على الاعتراض على بعض القرارات التي تتخذها الجامعة دون ان يكون هناك اتخاذ اي اجراء ضد الطالب من اي نوع و ليس ان نوافق و نومىء برؤوسنا دون ان نفهم او ان نمتلك حتى ابسط الحقوق و هو التفكير بالشيء

ماذا لو تنوعت الاحزاب و الاراء السياسية و اعطيت حرية التعبير دون التأثير على امن الجامعة و الوطن
The previous three entries are by A.N Electrical Engineering Student

اتمنى ان يتغير مدرسين الجامعة لانه يوجد بها مدرسين على غير كفاءة و يتقاضون رواتبهم بدم بارد دون جهد. و ان تتغير قوانين الجامعة بخصصوص الدراسات العليا و قوانين امتحان التوفل، اسعار الدراسات العليا اعلى من اسعار باقي الجامعات الحكومية

H.S Masters Student

تغيير اساليب التدريس الانها اساليب قديمة و غيرعملية و التركيز على الجانب العملي و المطلوب في مجال العمل و الوطيفة

الاء ع كلية الاداب

EVERYONE I SPOKE TO AGREED THAT THE ACADEMIC STAFF IS BAD AND THAT THE TEACHING METHODS ARE OUTDATED.

I spoke to an international student from Taiwan, he said there are no signs inside the university and the only places he knows are the language center and the library, and he wrote:

improve the teaching skills in the language center

improve the working efficency of staff

extend the open time of library

ps: I will upload each paper after doing a scan when i get home because i didn't write everything on the papers.

I Feel Prettyyyy, Oh, So Pretty

My sister was humming this song yesterday and today after a cup of coffee, I started humming too =) it will put you in a good mood and i bet you will start humming in days =D it makes good things happen.






You know what I feel like, a theater musical play that is performed in various national Arabic Dialects, too musical and creatively unfamiliar, that i can relate to, inspiring, I want to be impressed. really, really, really I have been looking for this feeling.

when was the last time you were impressed/impressive people [ me included ]

ZAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

June 3 & 4 UN International Meeting in Malta for Peace Advancement towards the State of Palestine

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine at the Dolmen Hotel in Qawra, Malta, on 3 and 4 June, under the theme “Advancing the peace process -– Challenges facing the parties”. The Meeting will be held to mobilize international support for the Middle East peace process.

Participants in the Meeting will discuss the impact of the settlement construction on the current political process and the need for the parties to meet Road Map commitments. They will also examine the effects of the construction of the wall in the Occupied West Bank, and the importance of finding a solution to the question of Jerusalem.

There will be three plenary sessions will address a variety of issues and have discussion periods; Plenary I, entitled “Meeting Road Map commitments”, The sub-themes of the session are “The impact of settlements on the Palestinian population -- the scope of the problem”, “The issue of settlements in the Road Map, and “The consequences of settlement construction for the territorial integrity and contiguity of a future Palestinian State”.

Plenary II, entitled “The wall in the Occupied West Bank”, will start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 4 June. This session will focus on “Physical aspects of the construction”, “Effects of the construction on Palestinian communities”, and “The wall and international law”.

Plenary III, entitled “ Jerusalem -- Looking forward to a capital of two States”, will take place at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 4 June. The sub-themes are “The status of Jerusalem in international law”, “ Jerusalem between 1947 and today”, and “ Jerusalem as a permanent status issue”. [source]

Registration will be open on Friday, 30 May, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Monday, 2 June, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On 3 June, registration will start at 8 a.m. The United Nations Secretariat is operating on the first floor of the Conference Centre, Room “Ammon”, tel.: +356 2355 2540 (direct line) or 2355 2355 (hotel Operator), fax: +356 2355 2405, e-mail: dpr-meeting@un.org.

Highlights from the National Technology Parade Day 1 Program - Tuesday May 13th

Meet four Senior Directors from Leading Jordanian and Regional ICT Companies in a one hour session to learn about their line of business, working environment and hiring opportunities.

Speakers:
Eng. Hazem Ahmed, Development Department Manager - Sedco
Eng. Nael Halawa, Marketing and Operations Director - Globitel
Dr. Wassef Masri, General Manager - Optimiza Jordan
Eng. Dawsar Zgoul, General Manager - Softact

Time: 11:30 - 12:30

to spice it up a bit and add more interaction, a panel discussion will be held under the title of "ICT Job Market" if you are about to graduate, or interested in hearing what students think Dont miss this one.

Speakers:
Ms. Yara Abdel-Samad, MoICT - Head of IT Policy
Mr. Mohannad Jarrah, Injaz - Operation Director
Mr. Yousef Shamoun, Akhtaboot - Head of Sales and Marketing Dept.
Mr. Mohannad Taslaq from Intaj

The discussion will be run by Dr Ali El Mousa

Time: 2:00 - 3:00

What makes a good employee?? some students graduate with High GPAs but fail to build a career, to tackle this issue, we introduce a session called " Good Employee, Bad Habits"

Speaker:
Doha Abdel Khaleq - Eskadenia

Time: 3:00 - 4:00

On the final session for the first day, it gets technical, it addresses the definition and history of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, needs and benefits. explores Oracle business intelligence and data warehousing tools, technologies and architecture. The obstacles and future.

Speaker:

Ms. Abeer Saleh, Insurance Solutions Department Manager - Optimiza Jordan

Time: 4:00 - 5:00

All sessions will be held @ Saeed Al Mufti Auditorium
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
The University of Jordan

Free Entrance.
Spread The Word.

For more Details, Visit: http://fetweb.ju.edu.jo/tp

Keep Talking

For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals
Then something happenend which unleashed the power of our imagination
We learned to talk

where do we go from here?

JU Today

i went to Jordan University to check the registration desk for some papers i needed to hand in, when i couldnt finish up before the lunch break i was left with an hour and a half of free time before i got to resume my work and meet my professor

this free time was very eventful that i have to congratulate Dr. Khaled Karaki for the shift that is happening concerning students extracular activities.

between 12:30 and 2:00 pm today there were three very interesting activities running the same time that i was aware of

1. poetry reciting infront of the main library; there is a small roman shaped stage steps that is not used often, im not sure if its the idea of the faculty of arts or the deanship of student affairs/poetry club students but they managed to have outdoors stand, microphones and speakers, students from various faculties recited their poems, it was awesome listening to poems by students about love, beauty, pain, nationalism, Lebanon, some were really good.

2. At the student activities complex, there was a basketball game between the team of the faculty of IT and the faculty of Engineering, that was just amazinng, i swear it was so much fun, they are really talented and students were SO engaged, the complex was booked and the atmosphere was awsome! i left at the begining of the third quarter and the engineering team was leading with 30 points

3. At the faculty of Engineering, IEEE Student Branch was showing a documentary movie called the Robot Race at Saeed Al Muft Auditorium which is the biggest among all halls in the faculty, i just wanted to point out that two and three years ago, if students wanted to use this auditorium they would have to go through lots and lots and signatures to get to do an activity and this auditorium was not open except on special occaisons, now the branch and 3 departments run lecture series in the field of Engineering which is picking a pace on introducing students to whats new, now students are getting more creative in voluntry work and on another note, the faculty finally got to give the branch an office =D that was the biggest obstacle facing this kind of work, if students wanted to do activities in their faculties, faculty Deans had the problem of whether to adopt them or not because all extracular activities have to be autheticated from the deanship of student affairs under clubs and not under faculties so if you want to establish a student club as part of the faculty you have to fight for 6 years to get an office and convince them of your purpose and the mechanism of whom to refer to and who will do the follow ups.

what i hope to see in the future is getting women participating more, somehow in all three activities, women shy to be in the picture, i didnt see any female poets, girls screaming their lungs in the game as much as the guys did, still students sit in separate blocks, mainly guys, mainly girls sections, facing women in engineering challenges and guys mentality that girls shouldnt do this kind of work or that some girls cant compete in certain areas as guys, etc etc..

im happy because students are enjoying these things and are participating more than the previous years, but i hope that Dr Karaki's next step is including more incetives for students to raise the bar on the quality of their work and compete at more professional and higher levels and start considering the importance of interdesciplinary projects between faculties which is something beautiful, for example getting engineering students making applications for problems facing med school students as senior projects, merging IT students with design students, getting philosophy students to sit with religious studies students, PE students with Nutrition students and so on and so forth..

Science Journalism Vs Consumerism

Science Journalism strives to present primary scientific litterature to the general public in simple and appealing well presented language, this kind of Journalism faces challenges in reaching people in proper context and questions the methods of addressing various ranges of scientific backgrounds.

This topic is complicated because it is increasingly affecting the development of societies and the problem is in such a way that the part that reaches the public is the "newsy" part of science, seller science that is set to take part in forming governmental policies and switching the public mind towards a direction or another for example focusing coverages on climate models or biomedical research or string theory. but there is more to it than this, if you examine the amount of pages dedicated to science in a typical newspaper, you'd be amazed that it doesn't exceed an article or two, how will a journalist in science section convey a complete research in a page to explain controversial issues that science is currently discussing and how will he manage the space and affect opinions? you'd end up saying after a reading something like "so? and? what do you want to say?? or what do you want to tell me?" simply pure sciences don't have to have a social or political reasons to exist, this is a problem in outreach when the addressed audience has not done science at college and it has been noted that a politician for example doesnt have the time to follow up beyond the first five lines a scientist starts explaining a theory, they are only interested in results when its the method is what is important to make a decision and if you examine journals that are dedicated to science, you will find that they are more and more including cover stories that are catchy and appealing and not theory-science centric that journals like National Geographic Magazine for example shifted to in order to compete on the stands to widen the base of readers which doen't suit scientists because it turned commercial.

It is important to realize that scientific truth and the truth in the news media are not the same thing. Scientific truths exist in context. They exist relative to past discoveries, and are constantly subject to review and revision. There are uncertainties associated with most discoveries, but they are accepted as working theories, and as such they can be used as stepping stones to a new level of understanding. so when you read a science paper in order to understand you need to pay attention to details that are carefully put by the journalist who had to cut information for space but aims for you to understand because its no longer ordinary litterature, it has to convey certain technical terms so you form an understanding and afterwards an opinion.

now, some are posing the question of "How Much Science One Should Know "?!?

well, if you want to be able to have a proper judgement on any issue you need to learn quite a bit more on science and dig into it, because not everything you read is right, but you will develop a feel for whats right after you do some reading in science, thats why its no longer valid not to have scientific background no matter what field you are in, because it grew to a level that it became part of making controversial decisions that currently Europeans and Americans are questioning how much should they add to science knowledge under high school studies so they would fill the gap.

Always keep in mind that news agencies and journals owners are selling you information, someone is paying for this information spread. this is fine, but you should know, that there are more important researches and studies that are worth digging into and are not given coverage and this is your part of the balance, take part in learning and thinking and deciding. even the most reputable institutes and journals want to sell at the end of the day, but that shouldnt stand in your way to find knowledge. when in doubt, look for the source.

Israeli Violations

For every time Israel committed violations and state terror in occupied Palestine, our efforts as people - since governments are in null state- can be concluded to raise the voice to gain an international condemnation for the acts, an international condemnation that slows down the Israeli motion that wants to win it all legally. do we know any slight positive progress at any scale on this issue from Palestinian point of view? if you know any, please do point them out whatever ideology you follow.

fine, we are citizens here and we support peace but how much are we willing to compromise in the name of peace? firstly, how much do you know about Palestine today, do you know anything more than the death count of Palestinians?

Palestinian Authority controls 17.2% of the occupied West Bank divided into 13 non-contiguous reservations.

Palestinian Authority controls 80% of the Gaza Strip

Palestinian Authority controls 21.7% of the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Palestinian Authority controls only 5% of Historical Palestine, you know the map, 5% is what Palestinians have control on!

Israel is presently building a wall between Israel and the West Bank that, when completed, will be some 450 (possibly 650) kilometres in length. 150 kilometres have already been completed and building constructors are working frenetically to finish it as soon as possible. At times this barrier takes the form of an eight‑metre‑high wall (near Qalqiliya). Mostly it takes the form of a barrier some 60 to 100 metres wide, which includes buffer zones with trenches and barbed wire, trace paths to register footprints, an electric fence with sensors to warn of any incursion, a two-lane patrol road and fortified guard towers at regular intervals. No-go areas of over 100 metres wide on each side of the barrier will be policed by IDF (IOF). Israel has undertaken to install some 27 agricultural crossings and 5 general crossings for traffic and persons through the barrier but as yet little progress has been made on these crossings.

The Wall does not follow the Green Line, that is the 1967 boundary between Israel and Palestine which is generally accepted as the border between the two entities. Instead, it follows a route that incorporates substantial parts of Palestine within Israel. At present the Wall intrudes six to seven kilometres within Palestine, but there are proposals to penetrate still deeper into Palestinian territory in order to include the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumim. In some places the winding route creates a barrier that completely encircles Palestinian villages while at many points it separates Palestinian villages from the rest of the West Bank and converts them into isolated enclaves. Qalqiliya, a city with a population of 40,000, is completely surrounded by the Wall and residents can only enter or leave through a single military checkpoint open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Palestinians between the Wall and the Green Line will effectively be cut off from their land and workplaces, schools, health clinics and other social services. Much of the Palestinian land on the Israeli side of the Wall consists of fertile agricultural land and some of the most important water wells in the region. The Wall is constructed on Palestinian lands expropriated by Israeli military order, justified on grounds of military necessity. Many fruit and olive trees had been destroyed in the course of building the barrier. B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights NGO, estimates that the barrier will cause direct harm to at least 210,000 Palestinians living in 67 villages, towns and cities.

Palestinians, unconvinced by Israel’s assurances that they will be allowed to pass through the crossings to be erected in the Wall, are moving from their homes in the affected areas to the security of what remains of Palestine. It is reported that already some 600 shops and enterprises have closed in Qalqiliya as a result of the construction of the Wall. The Wall will therefore create a new generation of refugees or internally displaced persons.It is impossible to give complete facts about the Wall as its final trajectory is still surrounded in secrecy and uncertainty. The path of the Wall changes regularly in response to demands from settlers and other political interest groups within Israel. There is no transparency surrounding the construction of the Wall and its final course seems to be known only to an inner circle of the military and political establishment within Israel. It is, however, widely expected that, following the completion of the Wall separating Israel from the West Bank on the western side, an eastern wall will be constructed, along the mountain ridge west of the Jordan Valley, which will separate Palestine from the Jordan Valley.

from John Dugard Report to the United Nations, dated 26Th of February, 2008

this is just a little bit of what is going on, people, Israel is so close of sealing the deal to 95% of whole Palestine together with Jerusalem when this wall is fully built casting Palestinians in colonies if we didnt support the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department. Palestinians needs full Arab and Islamic support to overcome its current state without losing it all for good, its negotiating on no grounds, no military force, internal factions and Israel is playing them like marionettes and just giving no bonding resolutions, its floating because of a weak counter negotiator, please understand that, all this while Arab people are waving the banners of western dome and fake freedom based on ignorance. there is nothing to fear here, Palestinians need backup in negotiations.

READ AND LEARN HOW MUCH YOU PEOPLE ARE SUBJECT TO THEFT AND YOU ARE HAPPY AND EASILY LETTING GO OF YOUR RIGHTS TILL YOU WONT HAVE ANY BECAUSE YOU SURRENDERED TODAY!

GO WALK

ok,, people,, all of you, you need to go out of your houses, leave your desks and your blogs and your piles of work, your saturated heads and your frustrated beings of all the bad news around.

GO WALK. SERIOUSLY. GO FOR A TWO HOUR WALK AND DITCH THE NEWS AND WORK AND TROUBLES AND THE COMPUTER FOR SOMETIME.

its been really frustrating and draining, a tired soul can't find solutions, and for every effort you did, i believe that it was heard. maybe the approach should be altered, but its not the right time to think about it..

GO WALK.

SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS ON ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENT TO HALT SETTLEMENT EXPANSION

The following statement was issued March 10th by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Secretary-General expresses his concern over the Government of Israel’s approval of a resumption of construction of 750 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev. Any settlement expansion is contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Road Map and to international law. The Secretary-General calls on the Government of Israel to halt settlement expansion and reiterates that the fulfilment of Road Map obligations by both parties is an important measure underpinning the political process between them.